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I don't know what exactly happened, but my desktop on Windows 11 doesn't show the icons anymore. It only displays the Recycle bin and, for some reason, when it is selected the shaded region is now a horizontal line (this shaded region indicates icon selection and usually is just a square shaded region around the icon).

part of my desktop showing the recycle bin and shaded region indicating selection

There are other icons of text files in my desktop, but they are not visible on the Desktop. Only when I go into explorer and see what's on the Desktop:

explorer Desktop folder with text files

When I changed the relative positions of my two monitors in system settings, I see that the icons appear to be all sitting on top of each other. Even when I have only my notebook monitor, the problem persists. enter image description here

Any ideas on how to fix this? When I switch to another Windows user, I don't have this problem.

Homero Esmeraldo
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2 Answers2

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I managed to fix the issue.

This link provided the solution: http://www.beaming.co.uk/knowledge-base/stacked-desktop-icons/

Which is the same solution to a slightly different problem (icons spaced out, instead of stacked) that has already been posted in a different question: Desktop Icons Spaced Out?

Here is the quote of that answer:

DISCLAIMER: Take caution when using Registry Editor.

  • Change the IconSpacing and IconVerticalSpacing values in Registry Editor to the Windows default value of -1128:

  1. Open Registry Editor by hitting Win + R and typing regedit into the Run box.

  2. Hit Enter and click 'Yes' to open Registry Editor.

  3. Navigate to following:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics You can paste this in the "address bar" in registry editor >window

  4. Change IconSpacing and IconVerticalSpacing values to -1125 by double->clicking on them and modifying the current value.

  5. Save changes and exit Registry Editor.

  6. Reboot your machine.

Thanks to @Ramhound and @Peregrino69 for pointing me towards these resources.

Homero Esmeraldo
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Did you tried to run an elevated command prompt and run this command ?

sfc /scannow

This should trying to "repare windows bugs"... On an other side, it should simply be a bug about whitch you can send a report to microsoft.

Bacomino
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